You know, many folks just dont believe, but I am going to say again, burn in is important and need it up here. Not sure about Audio Technica, but AKG must get 200 at very least, but more is even better. My K702 have 500+ and the Q701 I already sold, got 200+, before I did that, but maybe you are talking about something else?

THX

Quote:

Originally Posted by HaVoC-28

ya this is correct i didn't have any more original K702 (compared it to my current AD2000) but not enough to make real statement .

Out of box it sound good , but when i compare it to my AD2000 i have mixed feelings ...

I'm guessing/hoping the prices will eventually come down on these. Regardless of whether it's anniversary edition or not, the AKG *70* have always been overpriced by a wide margin, and the prices are simply unsustainable. How many other flagship headphones sell for half price on Amazon?

Regardless, I'm really liking the apparent changes they've made to the cans from what I've read, so I will definitely be picking up a pair of these at some point if possible, and selling my Q701 to fund it.

AD2000 mids are very forward , luxurious ones lot's of body and texture , clearly colored mids as usual from AT (you can like or hate it) , but because of all this "flesh" they are not very transparent , and shadow a bit the highs wich are relatively transparent and airy , but with mids like that highs tend to be a bit darker than usual and bit laid back (shadowed by mids) , at least they are innofensive .Less sub bass for AD2000 but more mid bass (well no surprise at all) . Soundstage hum well forward and inimate (and airy despite the mids) , not very wide but reasonable , enough depth too , instrument separation is not bad . A verry good dynamique . Details ? Well they are revealing cans if you get used to the mids (it's a bit like HD650 even if they are very different) .

On the Other hand K702 ANV for mids is a bit colder (but remain relatively warmth a bit more than the original K702 from my memory) , more transparent , linear and cleaner , they are far less colored than the AD2000 but far less addictive :p (depending on tastes) . For me depending on my mood i could prefer one or the other ... Highs transparent and airy and not overpowered by mids like on AD2000 just a bit tamed peraphs compared to my former K702 , so they are a bit more present compared to AD2000 and probably a bit more agressive with bad recordings , but nothing to complain about , as they are clearer than AD2000 at the end . Sub bass ... well K702 has more subb bass than AD2000 but less mid bass . Soundstage , large (but more oriented left/right than AD2000) airy , relatively deep , and great instrument separation . (i think that the signature is a bit more forward than my gone K702) . Dynamique is good but not as fast as AD2000 (but i don't mind at all) . They seam detailed as AD2000 but with the cleaner over all presentation seams more easy to pick up details (the funny thing is K702 seamed to me a tad less resolving to AD2000 cause it's more distand sounding ) .

I think that they are both great cans . For now trying to get used with K702 ANV , AD2000 coloration is something very addictive so ...) .

One thing that really bother me with K702 ANV is that i grab it from Thomann (and the price that i paid for at the end ,i had a credit with them , but after a call they said that they could refound me enterely ... and with this refound i could grab a K702 original + K701 548€ ...)

From Memory K702 ANV is a slightly modified K702 as reported here , a bit more sub bass and bass , slightly more mids , and tamed highs , a forward presentation , and that's all .

K702 anv confort is great (as it was with K702) , AD2000 bother me a bit time to time with drivers touching ears (nothing to much as i can stand it for hours).

Now my options are keeping both AD2000 and K702 ANV (replacing AD2000 pads as sugested by Blackmore) or go with AD2000X and return K702 anv to get later basic K702 , or keep ANV and grab AD2000X later ... etc

The biggest change going from the older AKGs to the Annies is the addition of bass. If your music taste doesnt have a lot of importance towards bass, you may feel the Annie is too similar to the older non-Annies.

However, play some EDM and hip hop on the Annie and compare to the older ones. I GUARANTEE the difference will obvious.

So, if you are one that wished for more bass, better comfort (as in a ginormous leap in comfort), and warmer tone, the Annie will not disappoint. Yes, it is still a K702/Q701, and listening to certain genres will make them sound more similar than different.

Give them their chance, and use them for things that favor the low end.

Well, I was going to jump on these this morning but it looks like they're out of stock on Amazon under bestseller21. I was already hesitant to spend $400 on a pair of cans, but $500 is really pushing it.

Well, I was going to jump on these this morning but it looks like they're out of stock on Amazon under bestseller21. I was already hesitant to spend $400 on a pair of cans, but $500 is really pushing it.

One thing that really bother me with K702 ANV is that i grab it from Thomann (and the price that i paid for at the end ,i had a credit with them , but after a call they said that they could refound me enterely ... and with this refound i could grab a K702 original + K701 548€ ...)

Dude! These are great cans but not worth the Thomann price. I would recommend you to take the refund and either wait for a better deal or go with something else. For the sake of comparison, my annies cost 395€ shipped. Oh and thanks for the impressions, great read.

No. It adds immersion. The Annie is still very revealing, and with a large soundstage, etc. It makes them better equipped for ALL forms of gaming, as opposed to just detail whoring, analyzing. Trust me, this is the best AKG I've had for gaming.

What I have always stated on my gaming thread is that as long as I see a headphone as an 8, you won't need a 9. So far the Annie is an 8.5 in fun, and a 9.5 in competitive. That's probably the second highest score on my whole guide, just behind the D7000, which may be more fun, but not as competitive, lacking openness, etc. The Annie IS the best all rounder, without a doubt. I'm not ready to review them yet, but expect nothing short of spectacular.Edited by Mad Lust Envy - 1/15/13 at 8:44am

So, I spent a few hours last night listening to the Annies. I really like them a lot. The bulk of the time I had them on, I was enjoying everything I heard. I plan to write more on that later, though.

I want to first address an unfortunate occurrence I ran into. I experienced what I'm pretty sure was bass distortion while watching a sequence from the Inception blu ray on my PS3. I watched the scene at the sidewalk cafe where Cobb and Ariadne dream-share for the first time, and Cobb is explaining stuff to her. As she realizes she's dreaming, things start to fall apart and start blowing up. I thought perhaps I was hearing distortion as the brick pavement was exploding, but also thought it was perhaps "texture" in the sound. But then when she started messing with the physics of the dream and bending the buildings, that's when I heard it. The buildings were creaking and groaning with a very low thrum and vibration and at first it sounded fine, but then the sound broke-up a bit and started to sound scratchy.

Needless to say, that worried me a bit. I didn't expect to hear bass distortion on my expensive headphones, especially on the first day out.

I remembered reading earlier to turn the Mixamp up to where I started to hear hiss, then back it off a bit and control volume from the Magni. I turned the Mixamp all the way up and heard zero hiss. I was quite surprised. I have the '09 version and knew it had the least amount of hiss, but didn't expect to hear none. Anyway, I considered the red color on the end of the Mixamp volume dial to be the last 2%, so I backed the dial off into the white at about 95-96%, just to be "safe". I then had the Magni turned to about 9 o'clock, maybe 9:15 (what is the Magni's sweet spot again?)

Moments before I watched Inception, I was watching the speeder bike chase on the Return of the Jedi special edition DVD (tons of fun!). No problems there. Afterward, I even went into the THX optimizer from the disc and ran the audio tests. After the individual test tones, it moved to in/out of phase sounds, and then finally the LFE crossover. It cautioned to turn the volume down, so I did a bit, and it played back fine. No distortion at all, very clean.

Everything I listened to pre-Inception sounded great, post-Inception I did a bit of gaming, and set off some nearby explosions and fired guns and again it sounded fine. I did back the Mixamp off a bit more to about 90% after the Inception distortion, but not really sure if that's the cause.

So, any ideas what's going on? I'm wondering if I should hook the Annies right into my receiver (no DH, only stereo) and see if the distortion still occurs. Any other thoughts?

It's the Mixamp that distorts the bass. Trust me. For some reason, some movies really make the Mixamp go haywire. Lol, I hooked up the Mixamp to my PC and did the sinegen, and it did not handle bass well.

You can run Sinegen, and check the frequencies, and you'll see the Annie does not distort the bass. Assuming you have some dac with the Magni, lol.Edited by Mad Lust Envy - 1/15/13 at 8:56am